How to start a cleaning business
/ 14 min read
The barrier to starting is low and the barrier to surviving is not. Almost every cleaning business that folds in year one folds for the same three reasons: it priced by feel, it never wrote down its scope, and it hired before it broke even.
Before you quote
- Price one real job before you register anything
- Get an insurance quote before you promise a client anything
- Decide the area you will actually drive
Before you leave
- Re-time your second visit at every property
- Review the rate at twelve months, without exception
- Keep every signed sheet
The order that works
Register, insure, price, sell, then buy equipment — in that order. Most people do it backwards, buy a van full of kit, and then discover their price does not cover it.
| Week | What you do | Why now |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Register the entity, get an EIN, open a business account | Everything else needs it |
| 1–2 | Get general liability and, if hiring, workers' comp quotes | Clients ask; contracts require it |
| 2 | Price one real job properly and write the scope down | The price sets the whole business |
| 3–4 | Sell to ten people you already know | Referral work is the cheapest work you will ever get |
| 4 | Buy only what the booked jobs need | Kit bought before work is a loan to yourself |
Registering the business
Sole proprietorship is the cheapest and the least protective; an LLC is the common choice for cleaning because the whole risk is somebody else's property. Registration is done at state level and takes days, not weeks.
You will need an EIN from the IRS for a business bank account and for payroll. It is issued online, immediately, at no cost — anybody charging you for one is selling you a form you can file yourself.
A 'cleaning licence' is not usually a trade licence in the way a plumber has one. In most states it means a general business registration and possibly a local one. See our guide to cleaning business licence requirements before you pay anyone to obtain one for you.
Insurance is what makes you sellable
General liability is the policy clients actually ask for, and it averages $59 a month for cleaning businesses — $51 a month for house cleaning specifically. Once you employ anyone, workers' compensation averages $114 a month. A janitorial bond, which commercial contracts often require, averages $9 a month.
87% of cleaning owners carry $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. That is the limit most commercial contracts specify, so it is the sensible starting point rather than the minimum your broker offers.
Insureon (median of policies bought through Insureon), read 2026-09-04
Price before you sell
Work out one real price on one real property, with the scope written down, before you take a single call. Our house cleaning price calculator does the arithmetic; the discipline is doing it before the phone rings rather than during the call.
The most expensive mistake in the first month is quoting a recurring rate for a first visit. Quote them separately, always.
The first ten clients
They come from people who already know you, from local groups, and from the properties you drive past. Not from a website in month one. Ask ten people directly, with a price and a date, and expect two.
For commercial work the path is different and slower: walk in, ask who handles the cleaning contract, and ask when it renews. Most commercial cleaning is won at renewal, not at need.
The kit that is actually needed
Five chemicals, four colours of microfiber at six per colour per cleaner, a decent vacuum, a flat mop with spare heads, a caddy and a bucket. That is a working setup, and the full list is on our cleaning supplies list page.
Everything else — the second vacuum, the pressure washer, the branded van wrap — waits until booked work pays for it.
The three that end businesses
Pricing by feel, so margin is invisible until the year ends. Scope by conversation, so every complaint is unanswerable. Hiring before break-even, so a fixed cost lands on a business that has not covered its existing ones.
Hire when the round is full and you are turning work away for two consecutive months — not when you are tired. Tiredness is a scheduling problem; a full round is a business problem.